The Curse of Imran Khan!

[THX_1138]

I mention this now since this might just be the last time we see two pakistani cricket players ever take the field in the capacity of test match players: Yaseer Hameed and Mohammed Sami. An incredible piece of coincidence apart from their declining fortunes that these two players share is that at a particular time, they were lauded by Imran Khan as the next best hope for not just their country, but for the cricket world. I recall rather well when Imran Khan (i am hazzy about the timeline, but i would imagine it was right before the 2004 India's tour of Pakistan) where ahead of the ODIs, in a candid interview prior to the start of the match when asked about juxtapositioning Pakistani batting against India's he stated that Yaseer Hameed is right up there next to Tendulkar in both ability, talent and "violence". He went as far ahead as calling hameed "pakistan's very own tendulkar". Unfortunately for Hameed, times have been tough since... he has failed, failed again, and then failed some more. And today, quite possibly the last nail was hammered into the coffin of his cricket career. Mohammed Sami has a similar story. Left out of the squad of the 2003 world cup, imran lambasting the team selection and stated that sami would have "obliterated" india's lineup with his genuine pace and had he been included in the bowling line up, the match result would have been reversed. Sami had his fair share of opportunities thereafter, did well in the 2005 tour of india, but since then plummetted. infact, the 2005 tour saw him end up with a mere handful wickets at a 40+ average. and he just ended the first two test matches without a single wicket, conceeded close to 300 runs. mindboglingly miserable to say the least. Having said that, i was hoping the posters here would help me document which players imran has consistently thrown his support behind and how are these individuals faring today. true, he supported wasim who did quite well, but i am more interested in players who are either playing today, or started playing after imran retired.

[Dravid]

he supported pak as a country... and now its in a mess :hahaha:

[Ram]

Nice write up !